Divalent

I'm bumping this (the OP, not the followup comments) since it was one of the many excellent posts I found early in my training that helped me sort out and understand an important aspect of controling my canopy, particular as a newbie, and I found myself seaching for it recently to refresh my understanding of low level turns. On a related note: does anyone else think it would be a great idea if Dave Lepka and Bill Von and a few others of the most prolific and best writers and teachers/explainers here would cull through the archives and package up their best in single comprehensive book? With a good editor, it would be the skydiving bible that (IMO) this sport needs. Most of the important stuff has already been written, it would just be a matter of hunting it down and integrating it into an organized whole.

Did they probe you too? Hey bud, u o meeee a neu keybored!

There's a guy in Australia (Gary?) who apparently has real cheapo deals. You may have trouble getting a hold of him (in hiding, or something), but from what's been posted here, he has the very lowest prices.

The honorable and decent thing for you to do would be to give them 2 weeks notice, and the honorable and decent thing for them to do would be to thank you for giving them notice and let you continue to work up until your departure. However, since this company has proven that they can't be trusted to do the honorable and decent thing in this situation, I see no obligation on your part to let them screw you. I mean, you are doing them a favor by giving them notice, the only benefit you get by giving notice is maintaining good will. But respect is a two way street, and is not possible when you are dealing with a company that does not behave ethically.

It breaks the white looking loop Pardon my ignorance, but what is a 'flipped down riser'? How does it arise? Yeah, what he said: "what is a 'flipped down riser'?" (a search of the forum using that phrase didn't answer the question.)

Really? Admittedly we only have one side of the story. But if his essential claim is true (that he did, in fact, honestly work and was not paid, and the DZO has no reasonable counterclaim that would justify withholding his pay), you mean to tell me that he would be black balled by other DZOs when he finally outted this DZ after exhausting all reasonable legal avenues to collect his pay? It seems to me this person is going about it the right way, posting anonymously, not IDing the DZ at the start, just asking for reasonable legal means to get what he is (apparently) rightfully owed. Are DZOs that loyal to each other (in an "owners vs labor" sort of way) that they would consider a person a "troublemake" who didn't willingly and quietly accept gettting the shaft by a another DZO? Really?

We're not dirt diving, we're dancing And just using it as an excuse to touch each other & hold hands. Honest to god, as a student the first time I saw a group of belly flyers dirt diving an 8+ way one Sunday morning at the DZ, I thought they were doing some weird group prayer ritual. Later I learned that, in fact, they were.

Just a thought, but since you say that your pack jobs feel differently than those done by the packer, you might want to closely watch the packer pack your chute next time, and see if he/she does anything differently. Maybe even video it so you can go back later to confirm differences you think you saw. How do they stow the lines, cock (and later check) the PC, fold the PC and bridle, rout and store excess line in the container, orient the bag in the container, etc.

Here's a sampling: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2553208 http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=202654

Wolmari Pack. http://www.parasale.com/wolmari/wpages/wolmarpack.html Oh wow! I was doing that!

Yes, anything we accomplish is fleeting. One thing you can be sure about: they will be back.

I doubt it. Websites only get $ for clicks on ads. The few regulars in that thread don't strike me as the type that by skydiving gear. But I do agree with giving Mr Cooper his own forum. Right now, although the thread may have a lot of information in it, it is essentially unaccessable; any interesting nugget is hidden in a massively vast forest of crap: no one is going to read what you say would be 17,000 pages to get up to speed on what the issues are. A separate forum would allow, for example, individual threads on each of the different theories/suspects, separate ones on technical issues (the stairs, survival of the money, skydiving gear, the challenges of the skydive, etc) and individual flame threads for y'all ("Blevin's a book whore", "Jo needs to be institutionalized", "XX is a pathological liar", etc

What I did in prep for my HnPs was to pretend I was doing one as my exit for a couple of solos from altitude. I did everything I expected to do (jump to present my belly to the wind, arch, reach, "pull"), except didn't actually grab my hackey when I "pulled". As someone mentioned above, you want to aim to *stay* stable, not *get* stable. I found it helps to try to keep your eye on the plane when you exit. (not literally, of course)

I mean, is it just a coincidence? Or might there be a connection?

Welcome to the sport. I was where you are about 7 months ago. I did a tandem the day before my AFF course. I wanted to be sure that I wouldn't utterly freak out, so the main purpose was to make that go/no go decision for doing AFF. But it also gave me the experience of exiting the plane at 14K, freefalling at 120 mph (the wind; the noise), having the chute open to slow me down, a bit of experience flying the canopy, and got me a bit familiar with what the LZ looks like from the air. I think that was very valuable, and meant that when I was jumping and had to do stuff myself, I at least was somewhat familiar with the environment I was in (although certainly not yet comfortable being there ). So for me, I don't think a second tandem would have been worth the cost, although I'm sure it would have been of some benefit. (I now have my own rig, so what I saved is equivalent to 6-7 jumps now.) AFF level 1 you have two instructors holding on to you the whole time, from exit to deploy, and if you completely zone out they will pull your main for you. (Yeah, you can find YouTube videos where they manage to fall off, but many more where they do not; and I don't think any where they fell off but were unable to get back on.) A tandem is probably around the same price as redoing a level 1-3 (where there are 2 instructors), and one question you might ask yourself is: what would be the better prior experience to help you pass a particular AFF level: a failed attempt at that same level, or having made a second tandem jump before your FJC? But that's just for me. And I did my tandem the day before my FJC, so no layoff between that and my AFF 1 jump, so the experience was still fresh in my mind. I know that everyones fears/anxieties/confidence under stressful situations can be very different, and a second tandem could be very valuable.

bump

Agree in general, although it was an AFF level 5, so planned deploy at 4500, and we were planning on pulling at 4K, so not that big of a difference. And with only 3 groups exiting on a jump run parallel to a 2500 ft long LZ (the Farm), we had plenty of time to give (and we gave it). But another complication I didn't mention was that with the load and the 11-way, my buddy was sitting in the copilot seat to get more weight forward (and one of *us* sitting there rather than the student or instructor so that they would be able to more easily confer on the way up). So we were a bit staggered regardless of the order, and another reason why it was reasonable to swap the order. With the 11-way essentially trapping us in place until they exited, it seemed like a reasonable accomodation. In retrospect, I think the only thing I would have changed would be to have me sitting behind the student or the instructor.

Had a premature deployment while doing a two way, which most likely could have been prevented had I done a simple handle check. Jumped out of a caravan with a buddy (unlinked exit), and the plan was to get stable, dock, and then do more stuff. I did a double forward summersault exit, got stable, spotted my buddy and as we were maneuvering towards each other (about 15 ft away, and about 15-20 seconds after exit), all of a sudden I felt my canopy open. My buddy didn't see anything prior to deployment (like a waving bridle) but OTOH doesn't remember seeing anything unusual (like my PC) until it was clear my chute was opening. Since it felt like a normal deployment to me (and no line twists or other issues once open), it seems most likely that my PC got out on its own, but of course can't rule out the possibility that my bridle got out first. I normally do handle checks in the plane, including my BOC PC, but didn't check that one for this jump. The reason I likely forgot was that this was a bit unusual. It was a caravan holding 15: a 11-way belly formation, an AFF student and instructor, and the 2 of us. Originally the plan was for the AFF to exit last, but after takeoff decided that since the 11-way needed more separation time, and AFF usually take longer to get set up and off anyway, that it would make sense to swap places. (And with just 3 groups, we gave them 15 seconds also, even though there was no headwinds). With 11 going off first, the 4 of us were asked to remain jammed as far forward as possible until they departed. A PC handle check would have also been a crotch check of the AFF student up to that point. After they left, their was some shuffling to get the AFF and his instructor past us to the door, and that was when I should have checked to ensure my PC was still properly positioned. But I guess in all the excitement, I just forgot. Fortunately no one was above me. My buddy had a nervous moment trying to figure out why I was deploying all of a sudden (were we low? Way long? About to fly through open canopies of the 11 way?), but he ended up doing what seems like a smart thing, which was to track perpendicular to jump run to get out of my column in case I had issues and might be chopping, but then enjoy his premature solo jump. The lesson (I think): always check your handles.

same here. only about 10% of page hit attempts succeed.

Now I understand your handle.

bump +1 Weak effort, folks. DB Cooper owns you. Resistance is futile. Although I do wonder what would happen if a bunch of people entered their thread and just started posting pseudo offtopic stuff. Lots of it. Would it be possible to actually hijack that thread? (Would the mods delete off topic stuff? Would they go elsewhere? Start a new thread?) OTOH, it's kind of an institution here. Like a long running soap opera.

Now I understand your handle.

um ... you folks may want to check the date of the OP. I don't think he cares any more.

I stopped by for a couple of fun jumps on a weekday this summer when I was down that way visiting relatives. Nice place, seems to be well run. They had their waiver online so I was able to get that out of the way before I even arrived. And they also have a 5 page "DropZone Briefing" newsletter on their website that gave an excellent overview of the facilities, the LZ, and their usual procedures. Folks were very friendly and welcoming, got me checked-in in no time, and got a solid briefing from Quinn, one of their instructors. I did a solo just to get myself familiar with the space and then a 2-way with another low timer before family duties ended my visit. Only con (minor) was the standing water in some of the landing area (but they recently had a lot of rain, and I wasn't gonna let a bit of water stop me). I look forward to returning when I am visiting the area in the future.

Doesnt look like that guy even has goggles on... distraction? Seems only fair - the poor cat's eye's aren't screened from the wind, so why should the guy's be? And the PAX didn't even have an altimeter. It suggests the DZ is really a tandem factory; not really interested in taking the opportunity to teach the student. Sad, really.